| Dundee United may have become his biggest rivals since he arrived at Dens Park early in the year, but the Aberdeen-based multi-millionaire can understand their disappointment at losing Craig.
As a home and away follower of Scotland, though, he believes this is the best Christmas present Scots fans could have hoped for.
“Since I was standing on the terraces in Norway in August watching the team get hammered, I’ve been of the belief Craig Levein was the perfect manager for Scotland,” he said.
“Obviously, as a director of another club, never mind the one right across the road, I did not feel it would be appropriate for me the say so in public.
“Now he has been appointed, though, I can, and I think this is a move the whole country should get behind because, if he can bring success back to the international team, it will be a good thing for all of us.”
In keeping with the season of goodwill, Melville was keen to highlight there was still at least one very good club manager in Tannadice Street — his own.
“As well as being a Craig Levein fan, since I got involved at Dundee, I have become a big admirer of Jocky Scott,” he added.
“Jocky tends to go about his business in an understated way and maybe that means he does not get the recognition he deserves.
“I see him go about his business, though, and I know how good he is and why so many people in the game rate him highly.”
In typically-understated fashion, today Jocky was concerning himself with nothing other than preparing for the Boxing Day clash at Inverness.
His players trained at Dens again and, with undersoil heating also in use at the Caley Stadium, there are no concerns about the surface up there.
The one doubt about the game going ahead could be road conditions between here and the Highland capital, and Dundee will be checking those before heading north tomorrow night.
“We’ve had problems down here this week with boys getting in for training, but I don’t know how bad the A9 is,” said Jocky. “We are finding that out before we head off, but I’m expecting the game to be on.”
However, the big freeze has already decimated the SFL’s Boxing Day card with only Dundee’s game at Inverness and Partick’s home fixture against QOS surviving the current Arctic blast. |
